Crashed at the Goodwin Sands?

 Voor de Nederlandse samenvatting, zie na de Engelse tekst.

Ever since 2016, I have been looking for the remains of KLM pilot Adriaan Pijl and his aircraft, a Fokker F.III with registration H-NABS. Adriaan disappeared over The Channel 100 years ago on April 24, 1924. He was on his way from Lympne Airfield to Rotterdam. Taking off with two passengers (Messrs Modderman and Van Hien) he was last seen heading in the misty direction of the Goodwin Sands. Whether the plane crashed there or elsewhere in The Channel, remains unknown to this very day. The next day one of Adriaan's colleagues spotted an oil stain near the Sands. For the full story of Adriaan's disappearance, please click here.

The Goodwin Sands, the possible crash site of the H-NABS
Credit: Imray/Goodwin Sands Conservation Trust

In those days, aircraft predominantly consisted of textile fabric and three-ply covering. Little imagination is needed to realize what will happen when such a structure hits the water. So no wonder not even debris was found. The temperature of the seawater in April is such that possible survivors of the crash will become hypothermic within a short time. So no doubt both the pilot and his passengers will have drowned. 

In many cases, bodies of drowned people wash ashore. Not so in this case. At least there is no mention of such incidents in the Dutch newspapers. Of course, unidentified bodies may have been found on beaches in the U.K. or Belgium. However, the crash of the H-NABS was widely published at the time. So one can safely assume their remains are still at sea. There is another "little something" that has not been found so far: the aircraft engine. Obviously, that is not one of those huge Rolls Royce jet engines you see today but a much smaller cylinder block weighing some 300 kilos (680 lbs). It is unlikely that this piece of metal measuring H1.12 x L1.75 x W0.77 mtrs (44"x69"x30") ends on a beach. It is more probable that it disappeared in the sandy bottom of the North Sea.

For some time, I had the idea that one day the engine would get tangled up in the nets of a fishing boat. So I have been looking for an opportunity to let fishermen know I would be interested in this particular catch should it end up in their nets. I recently contacted a Dutch foundation aiming to find Dutch fishing vessels that have sunk in storms frequently plaguing the North Sea. Lately, they have been successful in finding several wrecks and, what is more important to their families, several human remains as well. So I contacted a board member, and he suggested that I contact a few trade papers published in the U.K. and Holland. 

In the U.K. I contacted the editor of Fishing News, Andy Read. He was kind enough to publish my letter to him plus a photograph of Adriaan and the Siddeley Puma engine as well.

Fishing News, August 22, 2024

So my hopes are pinned on English fishermen reading my letter and hearing about this story. Wouldn't it be fantastic if, after a century, it would become clear where Adriaan and his plane found their fate? I am looking forward to that day!

Information may be sent to me via email: patmiebies at gmail dot com.

Samenvatting

Sinds 2016 ben ik op zoek naar de stoffelijke resten van KLM-piloot Adriaan Pijl en zijn vliegtuig, een Fokker F.III met registratie H-NABS. Adriaan verdween 100 jaar geleden boven het Kanaal, op 24 april 1924. Onderweg van Lympne Airfield naar Rotterdam Waalhaven, vertrok hij met twee passagiers (de heren Modderman en Van Hien). De Fokker werd het laatst gezien vliegend in de richting van de Goodwin Sands. Of het vliegtuig daar of ergens anders in het Kanaal is neergestort, is tot op de dag van vandaag onbekend. Een paar uur later zag een van Adriaans collega's een olievlek bij The Sands. Voor het volledige verhaal van Adriaans verdwijning, klik hier.

In die tijd bestonden vliegtuigen voornamelijk uit textiel en triplex. Je hebt weinig verbeelding nodig om je voor te stellen wat er gebeurt als zo'n constructie met een klap op/in het water terechtkomt. Het is dan ook niet verwonderlijk dat er zelfs geen brokstukken zijn gevonden. De temperatuur van het zeewater is in april zodanig dat mogelijke overlevenden van het ongeval binnen korte tijd onderkoeld raken. Dus ongetwijfeld zullen zowel de piloot als zijn passagiers zijn omgekomen.

In veel gevallen spoelen lichamen van verdronken mensen aan. Dat is in dit geval niet gebeurd. In ieder geval is er in Nederlandse kranten niet over zo'n incident geschreven. Natuurlijk kunnen er ook ongeïdentificeerde lichamen zijn gevonden op stranden in het Verenigd Koninkrijk of België. De crash van de H-NABS werd echter destijds breed uitgemeten. We kunnen er dus gerust van uitgaan dat de stoffelijk overschotten nog steeds in zee liggen. Er is nog een iets dat tot nu toe niet is gevonden: de vliegtuigmotor. Dat is uiteraard niet een van die enorme Rolls Royce straalmotoren die je tegenwoordig ziet, maar een veel kleiner cilinderblok van toch wel zo'n 300 kilo. Het is onwaarschijnlijk dat dit stuk metaal van H 1,12 x L 1,75 x B 0,77 mtr. op een strand terecht is gekomen. Het is waarschijnlijker dat het in de zanderige bodem van de Noordzee is verdwenen.

Ik had al een tijdje het idee dat de motor misschien ooit in de netten van een vissersboot verstrikt zou kunnen raken. Daarom zocht ik naar een mogelijkheid om vissers te laten weten dat ik geïnteresseerd zou zijn in deze specifieke vangst mocht die in hun netten belanden. Ik heb onlangs contact opgenomen met de Stichting Onderzoek Maritieme Vermisten die als doel heeft om Nederlandse vissersschepen te vinden die zijn gezonken in stormen die de Noordzee regelmatig teisteren. De laatste tijd zijn ze erin geslaagd om verschillende wrakken te vinden en, wat nog belangrijker is voor hun families, ook verschillende stoffelijke overschotten. Zo kwam ik in contact met bestuurslid Cees Meeldijk en hij stelde onder andere voor te schrijven naar een paar vakbladen die in het Verenigd Koninkrijk en Nederland worden uitgegeven.

In het Nederland ben ik zodoende in contact gekomen met een redacteur van Visserijnieuws, Gijsbert van der Bent. Hij was zo vriendelijk om mijn tekst te publiceren plus een foto van Adriaan en de Siddeley Puma-motor.

Visserijnieuws, 11 oktober 2024 

Dus mijn hoop is gevestigd op vissers die dit artikel lezen en iets over dit verhaal horen. Zou het niet fantastisch zijn als na een eeuw duidelijk zou worden waar Adriaan en zijn vliegtuig zijn neergestort? Ik kijk uit naar die dag!

Informatie kan naar mij worden gestuurd via e-mail: patmiebies at gmail dot com.

Sepia Saturday 755 - Celebrations

To the best of my knowledge, we don't have any Cinderellas in the family, nor am I aware of any aunts or nieces wearing glass slippers or fancy dresses. So, it is difficult to relate this week's theme to my shoebox full of family pictures.

Still, it is an interesting image. It looks like a photoshopped picture avant la lettre of drawn clothing with real human heads on top. It is supposed to have been printed around 1890 which makes it special.

Now, how do I relate this picture to my shoebox? When I looked closer, I saw that some people displayed a (family?) coat of arms on their clothing.

And that reminded me of the coat of arms belonging to my maternal grandmother's family. Grandma's  last name is Doelman. Today the literal translation of that name is goalkeeper. But the family records go back to the 16th century and in those days the word doelen referred to a shooting range, a place where the local military practised. So it could very well be that Grandma's ancestors were the proprietors of the shooting range. But that is sheer speculation.

Coat of arms Doelman

It is unknown whether the family already had the coat of arms as early as the 16th century. However, elements such as the lion already adorned a Doelman family crest in the late sixteen hundreds.

Coat of arms belonging to Cornelis
Michielsz Doelman approx. 1566

It is a common misunderstanding that having a family crest means that one is of noble descent. In many cases that is correct. But also prominent families high on the social ladder often had one. I assume Grandma's family qualified because they had important positions in the city of Delft. Of one thing I am certain. Although Grandma was fond of fancy dresses, she never wore any glass slippers, not even during the Christmas season.

For more fairy tales please turn to the last Sepia Saturday of the year 2024.

Sepia Saturday 750 - New arrivals

I feel there can't be any new arrivals without preceding departures. And sometimes new arrivals are not yet visible. Why these somewhat puzzling starting sentences? Well, I'll be honest. I have been looking in my albums and folders, and I can't find any inspiring pictures. So I have been looking for a backdoor to write a post that meets this month's theme. I hope I haven't strayed too far.                              My first picture shows a family on the verge of checking in for a departing KLM flight to New York Idlewild on April 24, 1947. I wrote about the Vander Dussen family before. Father Sybrand was a Rotterdam milkman with 11 children. He decided to emigrate to the USA and they developed an impressive dairy business in Southern California a.o. in Chino and Corona. Today, the family has over 300 members, and some moved to other states to start a dairy business there.

The Vander Dussens checking in at Amsterdam Schiphol
airport for their departure to the USA

The picture shows Mr. and Mrs. Sybrand Vander Dussen and nine children. Their baby twins in cradles were in the hands of stewardesses. In most of my photos of the family, father Sybrand is smoking a cigarette, not unusual in those days. If you have a closer look at the image below, taken over a decade earlier, you'll also notice a cigarette in the hands of all four men. In those days smoking was regarded as fashionable. Nobody knew or cared about the hazards, least of all the tobacco industry itself. Tobacco addiction was not something doctors spoke about. Why this attention to a few strands of smoking tobacco? Well, it is just to connect to another departure.

KLM aircrew before departure to Batavia on December, 18. 1933
F.l.t.r. Capt. Smirnoff, Soer, Grosveld, Van Beukering

Today it is out of the question that you see an aircrew posing on the ramp in front of an aircraft, each with a smoking cigarette. But at the time (1933) the rules and regulations apparently differed, if any. The idea behind this legendary (in The Netherlands) flight was to reach Batavia, today's Djakarta, in the (then) Dutch East Indies in record time to deliver the Christmas mail. The aircraft was a Fokker F-XVIII named 'Pelikaan' (Pelican), with registration PH-AIP. Many KLM aircraft at the time bore the names of birds. The crew managed to reach Batavia in four days! Today there is a non-stop flight covering the 7093 miles in 15 hours. The times they are a-changin'. 

The return trip in 1933 took a few minutes less, and the operation was a national event. Some 20,000 people came to Amsterdam Schiphol Airport to celebrate the arrival of the Pelikaan on New Year's Eve.

No cigarettes in the last picture nor is the new arrival visible.

Wedding of Cornelis Doelman (6) and Lea Libert (7)
in Cruyshoutem (B) on July 4, 1921

Our (Dutch) family has several ties with Belgium. My own roots are in Kuringen which today is Hasselt in Belgian Limburg. The brother [6] of my maternal grandmother married Belgian Lea Eulalia Hortensia Libert [7], one of the most poetic names in the family. She was from Cruyshoutem in East Flanders.

Marriage certificate Doelman x Libert

Under normal circumstances, the sister of the groom, my grandmother, should have been at the wedding. But she wasn't. However, my grandfather made his appearance there. His name was Gerardus Theodorus de Langen and he is number 9 in this serious-looking company. The reason Grandma wasn't present was that she was about to give birth to my mother's sister a couple of weeks later. So I can imagine that traveling from The Hague to Belgium v.v. was not her favorite pastime then. This new arrival was baptized Theodora Gerarda, how imaginative! But in those days, naming your child after a parent or grandparent was standard practice.

Anyway, it explains why the new arrival can't be seen in this picture. And even if Grandma would have been present ..., well, you understand.

This completes my post with new arrivals. My stock of arrivals is exhausted so this is it! But I'm sure there are more on Sepia Saturday

Dienstplichtig rond WWI en wie zijn dit?

Conscription during WWI and who are they?

For a summary in English please see after the Dutch text

Mijn grootvader Andreas Miebies, is geboren op 7 april 1882 in Den Haag of 's-Gravenhage zoals de officiële naam luidt. Dat betekende in die dagen dat je op je 20e de dienstplicht moest vervullen. Niet iedereen hoefde in dienst want er werd geloot. Op 10 maart 1903 kreeg opa lotnummer 754 toegewezen en dat was ook meteen bingo want op 12 mei 1903 mocht hij zich in werkelijke dienst melden bij het Regiment Grenadiers en Jagers. Volgens zijn inschrijving in het stamboek (nr. 66074) was hij 1 meter 64 lang, zo'n beetje de gemiddelde lengte voor dienstplichtigen in die periode.

Voordat ik verder ga, eerst nog een opmerking over dat stamboeknummer (het heeft hier niks met vee te maken :-). Ik had het idee dat de militair gedurende zijn hele diensttijd hetzelfde nummer hield. Dat blijkt niet zo te zijn. Uit onderstaande loopbaanstaat wordt duidelijk dat wanneer Andreas naar een ander onderdeel wordt overgeplaatst, ook het stamboeknummer verandert. Mijn misverstand vindt waarschijnlijk z'n oorsprong in het zogenoemde registratienummer. Mijn vader, die voor het eerst opkwam in 1934, had nummer 14.08.03.030. Dat was zijn geboortedatum plus een volgnummer. Kennelijk is dat ergens in de 20-er jaren ingevoerd, de exacte datum heb ik niet kunnen achterhalen, ook niet via ChatGPT ... In ieder geval blijft dàt nummer tijdens de hele militaire carrière ongewijzigd.

Al met al is Andreas tijdens de periode 1903-1919 ruim 2,5 jaar in werkelijke dienst geweest. Dat is allemaal leuke wetenschap. Nog leuker is dat er een foto van hem, als sergeant, en zijn manschappen bewaard is gebleven. Het origineel is een sepia afdruk maar voor de gelegenheid is dit een digitaal geretoucheerd* en ingekleurd exemplaar. Dat geeft toch wat meer diepte.

47e bataljon landweer infanterie, district 's-Gravenhage
click to enlarge

De vraag rijst nu waar en wanneer deze foto is genomen en vooral, wie staan er op? Gelukkig weet ik dat grootvader Andreas nummer 8 is maar wie zijn de anderen?

Om wat meer over de uniformen op deze foto te weten te komen, heb ik mij tot het Legermuseum gewend. Van hen kreeg ik de volgende informatie.

"De foto is genomen na maart 1916, toen werd de kepie [pet] ingevoerd in het leger. De in het midden staande [5] en liggende [11] figuur dragen deze. Het is een sectie van het bataljon Landweer - Infanterie (Jagers No 47**) met als standplaats Den Haag. Er waren 44 districten en 2 bataljons Grenadiers (3 en 32) en 2 Jagerbataljons (36 en 47). Op de hoofden draagt men [2, 6, 7, 9, 10, 12 en 13] de sjako M1865 met de groene bol waarvan men [3 en 4] de emblemen (een lauwerkrans met daarin een hoorn) heeft afgehaald i.v.m. camouflage. Het is ook mogelijk dat ze in die tijd niet meer geleverd werden aan eenheden die de kepie kregen. De platte pet [1 en 8] behoorde bij het uniform van 1912, een grijsgroen uniform met groene jagerskraag en mouwopslagen. De linker figuur [1] draagt de jas die ingevoerd werd in 1905 en gedragen tot 1912. De twee rij knopen-jassen [2, 6, 10 en 13] werden gedragen van 1865 tot 1905. Allen zijn bewapend met het geweer M95 [zie ook hier]. De 2 onderofficieren, sergeanten van de Jagers met de kepies [5 en 11], zijn de instructeurs van het Regiment Jagers. Uw grootvader [8] was als sergeant de sectie-commandant." 

Het is mij niet duidelijk waarom die oude uniformdelen ("gedragen tot resp. 1912 en 1905") op deze foto nog te zien zijn.

Uit zowel de loopbaanstaat als uit de beschrijving van het Legermuseum komt vast te staan dat Andreas na maart 1916 in het district 's-Gravenhage diende. De foto is overduidelijk in de duinen genomen. Na maart 1916 is Andreas slechts 4 dagen op herhalingsoefening geweest en wel van 30 juli tot 2 augustus 1917. In die paar dagen moet de foto dus genomen zijn!

Om uit te vinden wie er buiten Andreas nog meer op de foto staan heb ik een alfabetische lijst met namen gemaakt van alle soldaten en onderofficieren die in die korte periode op herhaling zijn geweest. Daarvoor heb ik de stamboeken in het Nationaal Archief ***(digitaal) geraadpleegd. Het zijn er bijna 160. En nu maar hopen dat de geportretteerden door latere familieleden herkend worden, al dan niet aan hand van de namenlijst. Mogelijk staan de 2 instructeurs niet op de lijst.

NB De handschriften in de stamboeken zijn niet altijd even goed leesbaar. Met name in de geboortedata kan hier of daar wel een tikfoutje geslopen zijn.

Mochten lezers van dit blog in staat zijn iemand te identificeren, dan graag een mailtje naar patmiebies at gmail dot com. Dan kan ik u de foto zonder de cijfers toesturen.

Noten

* Met dank aan Hans Leideritz 
** 47 staat ook op de pet van 8.
*** 2.13.09 Inventaris van het archief van het Ministerie van Oorlog: Stamboeken van Onderofficieren en Minderen van de Landmacht, 1813-1924, inv. nrs. 2546-2551

Summary

Conscription during WWI and who are they?

I am fortunate to own a photograph showing my grandfather Andreas during his WWI conscription period. In the picture above, he is standing on the very right, the man with the heroic look and impressive mustache. His rank is sergeant, and he is the section commander of this group of soldiers. Obviously, I always wondered when and where this picture was taken and who the other braves were. Although it is not possible to pinpoint the exact location where the group was pictured, it is evident that we look at dunes. There are plenty of those near The Hague.

To get an idea of what exactly I was looking at, I contacted the Dutch Army Museum. They informed me that, based on certain elements of the uniforms, the picture was taken after March 1916. They also revealed the army unit. These soldiers were serving in the 47th Batallion Landweer, an infantry unit. This unit was stationed in The Hague.

My grandfather's military career can be revealed by consulting the regimental rolls digitally available from the National Archive in The Hague. There I found that the only period Andreas was on active duty after March 1916, was between July 30 and August 2, 1917. During those four days, a group of almost 160 men returned for refresher exercises. Armed with this knowledge I was able to identify these soldiers and non-commissioned officers. All their names have been listed above.

I hope that all this information, location, timing, and names, enables descendants to put a name on some of the faces in the picture and let me know. People can mail me at patmiebies at gmail dot com. In return a copy of the photograph, without the figures, is available.

Sepia Saturday 741 - Highs & Lows

When I look at a new SS theme, I usually have an idea of which pictures from the family archive I could use.  But not this time. Fortunately, Alan provided an escape (as he always does). He mentions "a couple of Alpine skiers from almost a century ago, feeling high on the top of a mountain".

I am not a skiing man myself nor do we have mountains in Holland. The highest "mountain" here is a hill called the Vaalserberg in the province of Limburg; it is a little over 300 meters high. Not exactly the type of mountain when you plan to go out skiing. But there is a picture of my grandfather Andreas Miebies (1883-1957) standing in the dunes near The Hague. It was taken over a century ago, during the second part of WW One when he was mobilized. We see him here standing on the very right. His rank is that of sergeant and he is the commanding officer of this group of soldiers serving in the 47th Landweer batallion Hunters (Jagers).

A section of infantry troops belonging to the 47th batallion Hunters
with Sgt. Andreas Miebies on the very right

The rifles you see are the Austrian .256 Manlicher M.95. It was manufactured 

under license in The Netherlands by the Hembrug weapon factory in Zaandam. 

It has been in use until after WW Two.

Manlicher M.95

When my grandparents celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary, their oldest 

son, my father, put together a kind of PowerPoint presentation avant la lettre. 

For that purpose, he made several drawings and stitched them onto a fabric roll. 

On the drawing below he drew himself shortly after his birth on his father's lap 

with Grandma still in bed. At the time, my dad was born in August 1914, 

Granddad apparently served already in the army as the Manlicher rifle was up 

against the wall and his uniform on the chair.

At the beginning of WW Two, the Dutch army Manlichers were confiscated and 

used by the Germans. So it is not impossible that just a few days before the end of 

WW Two, my father and his comrades were shot by Dutch Manlichers in the 

hands of Germans...

Like the drawing, the picture of the military in the dunes was also part of the presentation my father made for his parents. Readers with sharp eyes will 

be able to see the stitch holes on the top side of the photograph.

If you want to see how other Sepians interpreted this month's theme, go to the

Sepia Saturday site and enjoy yourself!

Sepia Saturday 736 - Postcard Memories

These days it is sporadic that I see a postcard when I open my letterbox. But there was a time, some of you may remember, when it was quite common to communicate with family and friends, by sending an illustrated postcard. When on holidays or on the occasion of a birthday, a postcard was carefully selected. The postage was less than required for a letter. So all space available was used to the very last millimeter to convey the news that the weather was fine, the food delicious, and the birthday happy. That was the pre-digital era my mother lived in. Her name was Ann de Langen. She was born on Oct. 31, 1917, and she closed her eyes precisely 99 years later in the early morning of Nov. 1, 2016. She liked to send and receive handwritten letters and postcards. And I consider myself lucky that she kept many of them in a shoebox which I found after the funeral. Altogether over 400 items including a collection of pre-WWII movie star postcards. Based on the postmarks she collected those when she was between 15 and 18 years old. Below are a few examples of cards showing the stars of the past. Some names still ring a bell. 

As you will see I have taken the liberty to imitate Alan's SepSat-lay out.

Marie Magdalene Dietrich (1901-1992)
Mail stamp The Hague, August 9, 1933
Postcard written by best friend Ineke Weststeijn (1918-before 2011)

Maurice Auguste Chevalier (r) (1888-1972) and junior?
Mail stamp The Hague, July 25, 1933
Postcard written by Ann's mother Antje de Langen-Doelman (1892-1984)

William Clark Gable (1901-1960)
Lucille Fay LeSueur Crawford (1908?-1977)
Mail stamp The Hague July 25, 1935
Postcard written by friend Lenny (Maarleveld?)

Lilian Helen Muriel Pape (1906-1968)
John Boles (1895-1969)
Mail stamp The Hague April 21, 1934
Postcard written by little sister Thea de Langen (1921-1996)

The stamps on all these postcards have a value of 5 Dutch guilder cents. At the time that was the rate for domestic delivery. In euro, that equals something like 2.7 euro cents. To illustrate the word 'inflation', today's domestic rate is € 1.14 ...

On the Lilian Harvey postcard above, you see a second stamp. That is additional postage because the sender forgot that the address was in Belgium. The extra expense came to the impressive amount of 70 Belgian franc centimes equalling approx. 3.5 Dutch guilder cents.

The last postcard is an uncirculated one. It shows the film song title of a 1929 composition by John Frederick Coots. So I don't expect there are Sepians around with a vivid memory of this blockbuster starring the famous (but murdered) Ramon Novarro (1899-1968). His co-star Anita Page (1910-2008) was at least equally renowned. She earned her credits during the silent movie era. 

Ramón Gil Samanlego and Anita Pomares

Since I am fond of making lists, most of them useless, I'll list the names, other than the ones mentioned above, of all the movie stars in my mother's collection. In case you are a fan of a particular star, I can mail you a scan of the relevant card(s). And if you don't recognize some of these names, it just means you are young of age.

Truus van Aalten (one of two postcards in my mother's collection displaying a Dutch movie star)

Hans Albers

Georg Alexander

Gitta Alpar

Tala Birell

Maurice Chevalier and Sylvia Sidney

Maurice Chevalier and Jeannette Mac Donald

Gary Cooper

Jackie Cooper

Lil Dagover

Marion Davies

Lien Deyers (Dutch)

Martha Eggerth

Charles Farrell

Willi Forst

Willy Fritsch

Willy Fritsch and Lilian Harvey

Willy Fritsch, Lilian Harvey, and Willy Forst

Willy Fritsch and Camilla Horn

Willy Fritsch and Renate Müller

Gustav Fröhlich

Greta Garbo

Greta Garbo and John Gilbert

Janet Gaynor

Gold diggers (group)

Dolly Haas

Dolly Haas and Heinz Rühmann

Liane Haid

Liane Haid and Georg Alexander

Lilian Harvey and Willi Forst

Brigitte Helm

Trader Horn

Jan Kiepura and Marta Eggerth

Jeannette Mac Donald

Renate Müller

Renate Müller and Hermann Thimig

Käthe von Nagy

Käthe von Nagy and Hans Albers

Ramon Novarro

Anny Ondra

Henny Porten

Heinz Rühmann

Anna Sten

Tarzan (Johnny Weissmüller?)

Hermann Thimig

Rudolph Valentino and Alice Terry

Otto Wallburg and Mady Christians

There are 85 movie star postcards in the collection. Not an impressive number but the cards must have had a certain value to my mother. Otherwise, she would not have kept them in a box for more than 80 years. During that period she moved 15 times! So it is a small miracle that these cards survived all the packing and unpacking. And now they have become part of my family archive. Hopefully, that will survive the next 80 years as well...

For more postcard memories please send yourself to Sepia Saturday.

Sepia Saturday 733 - On the water

I wrote about this subject before but assume that for most Sepians the story is new. Obviously, it is about water, about seawater to be more precise. The story starts in Newcastle-upon-Tyne on January 24, 1925. On that day a Lady Addis arrived on the Hawthorn Wharf there. Lady Addis was the wife of Sir Charles Stewart Addis, a.o. director of the famous P&O Line. This shipping company ordered four new ships for the London-Bombay mail service. They were named after Indian cities whose names all started with an R, hence they were known as the R-ships. Lady Addis came to the wharf to baptize P&O's latest R-ship, the SS Ranchi.

SS Ranchi

Apart from sailing between the UK and India, at the time still a British colony, she also did cruises in the Mediterranean. But in August 1939 the SS Ranchi was requisitioned by the British Admiralty to serve as an armed merchant cruiser. To accommodate guns her after funnel was removed as can be seen in the picture below.

In that configuration, the ship sailed some 300,000 miles on patrol and escort services until she was refitted as a troopship in 1943. The Ranchi participated in the Allied invasion of Italy. In 1947 she was reconditioned again to carry emigrants predominantly to Australia.

On August 15, 1945, the Japanese occupation of the Dutch East Indies, present-day Indonesia, came to an end. Also, British troops were instrumental in the surrender of Japanese forces.  Shortly after, the Indonesian independence movement gained momentum. This resulted in over 200,000 Dutch troops being sent to the Dutch colony to reestablish Dutch rule there. However, in 1949 the Dutch government was forced to recognize reality and Indonesia became an independent state.

Part of the Dutch military presence consisted of the Royal Dutch (East) Indian Army (KNIL). These troops consisted of soldiers whose families lived there for ages and also many indigenous people. After the independence declaration, they had the option of becoming Indonesian nationals. However, most of them opted for the Dutch nationality and had to leave the country. Many had to leave in a hurry because their security situation deteriorated rapidly. During the year 1950 over 100,000 people left Indonesia by ship, and the vast majority came to The Netherlands. It is easy to imagine that for this operation many passenger ships were needed and the SS Ranchi was one of them. Chartered by the Dutch government she left the port of Tanjung Priok, near Djakarta, on August 29, 1950.

The passenger manifest showed 973 passengers of which 781 KNIL troops including their wives and children. The voyage to Amsterdam ended on September 25 after having sailed the Indian Ocean, the Red Sea, the Suez Canal, the Mediterranean, the Atlantic Ocean, the Channel, and the North Sea. Surprisingly, upon arrival in Amsterdam, the number of passengers turned out to be 1,010! A plausible reason for this increase is the discovery of stowaways or the captain picking up crew from a sinking ship. But the true reason was that during the trip 35 women gave birth to a total of 37 babies!

Afterward, it appeared that the military knew about all these pregnant women in advance. They put as many as possible on a limited number of ships. These ships were accommodated with all the necessary medical staff and equipment including delivery rooms. The Dutch press quickly called them the Baby ships.

Obviously, not all these babies were born at the same time. Fortunately, I have found many details about this trip a.o. in the Dutch National archives in The Hague. There I found their names and the date and time of their birth. I have been in contact with several of them and some knew exactly the latitude and longitude of their birthplace. For others, I have made calculations based on the assumed speed of the Ranchi. The result is on the map below.

Route map with the places of birth of the 37 Ranchi babies 

Maybe you wonder how I ran into this story. It so happened that I saw an obituary in one of our newspapers.

Obituary of Esther Henriëtte Ranchita

First, I saw the deceased was born on a ship during a period when many ships sailed from the former Dutch East Indies. There were 95 of these ships in 1950 alone! But what really attracted my attention was the given name 'Ranchita'. And I thought Ranchi, Ranchita, this cannot be a coincidence! And it wasn't. When later, I had a look at all 37 baby names, and I found more 'ship names': Ranchi, Ranchis, Ranchia, and Ranchita. All in all 13 babies with an R-name. Believe it or not, Lady Addis, the godmother of the Ranchi, had 13 children as well!

Apparently, the ship's captain also found this a special trip. In his farewell letter to his passengers, he wrote: "I trust that all passengers, especially the little Ranchis and Ranchitas will remember this voyage to Amsterdam with pleasant recollection. I noticed since Aden the local storks have been interested in this ship. I have personally seen dozens, which probably accounts for the additions to our passenger list."

Altogether, the SS Ranchi made two trips as a charter for the Dutch government in 1950. Whether this contributed to her final demise, I don't know but in 1953 the Ranchi was scrapped in Newport, Wales. On January 19, almost to the day 28 years after she was launched, she was handed over to the demolition crews. She survived Lady Addis by less than a year. 

In case you like to know more about the described trip of the SS Ranchi, please see here.

For more watery contributions, please see the Sepia Saturday site.

Notes:

The other three R-ships were the SS Rawalpindi, SS Ranpura, and the SS Rajputana.

Nine years ago I found the colored image of the SS Ranchi on http://www.npg.org.uk.

The b/w picture is made bij photographer Alan C. Green (1878-1954).